EMPLOYEES AS STOCKHOLDERS.
I am glad to note the steady growth in the co-partnership movement in our big industrial concerns. The Southern Railway has not only just recently been inviting participations from its staff in the issue of 5 per cent. guaranteed Preference Stock, but special facilities were given whereby the amount applied for can be contributed through small weekly payments deducted from weekly wages. The issue as a whole has been well covered and it will be very interesting to see what measure of response is given by the staff. Meanwhile, the London Midland and Scottish Railway emphasize the success which has attended similar efforts on the" part of the Board to interest the staff in the stocks of the Company. In the case, for example, of the recent issue of 5 per cent. Debenture Stock of the L.M. & S. Railway which was so heavily oversubscribed, it appears that nearly £200,000 was taken up by 1,600 applicants from the staff, these appli- cants including 150 engine-drivers and firemen, 109 signalmen, 153 artisans, 317 controllers, foremen, guards, and porters, the balance being represented by station-masters and clerks. I am quite sure that the more fully, extensively, and intelli- gently the co-partnership idea is carried out, the less we shall have to fear, I will not say from strikes altogether, but from strikes of the unintelligent and lawless type.
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